In the Flesh
by Virus
Summary: There are horrors in the universe beyond imagination. They are usually hidden, out of sight. But when they do appear, a nightmare is unleashed. The New Republic and the Galaxy will now face this horror face to face.
1. Chapter 1

-1In the Flesh

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or any of the characters or races except my own.

Prologue

Tangel was a planet in the unknown part of galaxy. A rather harsh world, but not uninhabitable, as the Imperial Remnant discovered. They had placed a base there as a first step in colonizing. What happened next would make them wish they had changed their minds.

The watch party was the first to fall, their last message was that of them screaming. Next were the AT-STs. They never saw the attack coming; The enemy attack with such speed and stealth that the Imperials had no chance to fire back, the survivors wishing they had perished with their machines.

The remaining Imperials pulled back into the base, panic and fear in all of them, almost to the brink of madness. The base commander sent out a distress signal, but knew it was pointless. Soon the barricades fell, leaving the Imperials their blasters as the only defense left. All discipline failed as the enemy came closer, the last thing they uttered was screaming.

In the end, every last Imperial was dead, their bodies mutilated in a way almost to gruesome to speak of. The attackers went back into the darkness from which they cam. Anyone who cam upon the sight would have nothing but fear for the rest of the galaxy.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Luke Skywalker woke in a cold sweat, panting heavily as if he had ran from something terrible. He could sense it, something in the force, something was not right. It wasn't like anything he had sensed before. It was dark, that was for certain. But it was different, almost empty.

Skywalker walked outside, to cool off and clear his head. He looked at the night sky and he saw something was wrong. It was almost if the stars were wrong. Not to say that some one had moved then, it just seemed that there was something not right with them. He reached out the with the force and felt it, emptiness. All Luke could think was "What is out there?"

The next day, Luke decided to contact his sister on Coruscant. He activated the holo-transmitter to broadcast towards the Senate building. He was lucky that the senate was not in session at the moment, so contacting Leia wouldn't be difficult. The holo activated and a image of Leia appeared "Luke! This is a surprise. I thought that you'd be busy for a while."

Luke did say that. Being a Jedi master was time consuming. He had like time lately for his family or friends because of it. Though he was overjoyed to see his sister, he wished it was under better circumstances " I'm sorry I don't call often. You know me. Unfortunately, this isn't a social call. Has there been any thing odd happening?"

Leia was uncertain what he meant. Luke has been annoyingly cryptic since becoming a Jedi master and trying to figure out what he meant half the time was a task in itself, yet see learned to get used to it " What do you mean? Strange as in Imperial activity? Or did you mean something else?"

Something else. That would fit this situation to a T "I almost wish it was the Imperials. I sense something in the force. I don't know what it was. It was a feeling of nothingness. It was blank, yet had substance. Empty yet full. I know that doesn't make sense, but that's the best I could describe it."

Leia then got a feeling of worry come over her. It was bad when Luke sense something and knew it was bad news. But when he hadn't a clue at what he detected, that was a cause to be concerned "That's not exactly helpful Luke."

Luke knew it was difficult to describe. He himself was having difficulty describing it to himself. Yet he need to let someone know that something was coming "I wish I could say more. Listen if you hear anything, let me know. And I promise to call more often when I can."

The twins said their goodbyes as Luke went outside to meditate. It was not a pleasant experience. All Luke could sense was the same feeling: The empty nothingness that he been experiencing. Luckily, Luke's meditation was interrupted by a ship landing. Luke could see from the temple that it belonged to a certain red-headed force user.

Luke went down towards the ship to experience Mara Jade's usual "charming" personality. However, the woman that was coming towards him wasn't the Mara Jade he was used to. She was in a panic. It was as if he had saw the indescribable horror "Skywalker, you have to come with me!"

That was sentence that Luke didn't think he would ever hear. Though in this connotation made it more likely. Still Luke couldn't think about that. Mara was obviously distraught, which was out of character for her "Slow down Mara. What happened?"

Mara grabbed Luke and came close to dragging him towards her ship. Luke decided to try to keep up, least Mara pull his arm from his socket. Since Mara was insisting, Luke decided to enter the ship. The ship left Yarvin to parts unknown. Luke could tell by the trajectory that they were heading towards the edge of Hutt space.

As they came closer to Hutt space, Luke noticed that the nothingness he felt was getting stronger. He knew that Mara must have sensed as well. Though she had collected himself, Luke could sense that she was a was still quite worried "So Mara, what it going on?"

Normally Mara would have a colorful comment to add to such a inquiry. This time however, Mara was serious " I was doing some smuggling for some pirates. And don't say anything about it, this isn't the time!" Luke was silent, but quite happy that Mara was back to her "happy" self as it were and allowed her to continue

" Anyway, I had gotten the cargo they required, which wasn't easy considering it was Imperial equipment. When I headed back, I sensed something. It was, I don't know, a emptiness. I sensed it was coming from the pirate's space station. Curiosity got the better of me, so I went to the station. When I got there, well…You have to see for yourself."

The two arrived at the station and Luke could sense that the nothingness was very strong there. Luke and Mara entered and were met with a horrific sight: The pirates were all slaughtered. Some were left there on the floor, others were placed in big piles. They were are mutilated, the sight on some of there faces indicated that this had been done while they were alive.

The degree of mutilation was different on all of them. However they all had on thing in common: The tops of their skulls had been taken off. Luke went into for a closer look at them and found they had another thing in common: Their brains had been removed.


End file.
